Light and Shadow
by shadowjack12345
Summary: Another tumblr prompt. Raven is in deep trouble - literally! The consequences are unexpected.


**Light And Shadow**

**Just a short one, another tumblr prompt (from sumersprkl). Have a read. **

"Well... this can't be good."

Raven was, as usual, mistress of understatement. She was trapped, underground, in pitch darkness with no energy for teleportation and she was unable to reach her communicator. The team had been fighting Cinderblock near an old mine and, while the villain had been subdued, the fight had taken its toll on the ground around them. A forgotten mine collapsed beneath them, swallowing the exhausted Raven. Even now, she felt pinned, like there was no room for her limbs to move. She moved her head and it immediately made contact with a hard, uneven surface. She surmised she had managed to protect herself, using what little energy she had left as a cocoon, meaning she was now trapped in a Raven-size cavity in the rubble. She fought down her panic. The other Titans would come for her. They always did. Then she idly wondered how much air she had with her and had to fight her panic a second time. Just as she managed to slow her heart rate, she felt a cool draft across her forehead: perhaps air wasn't an urgent concern after all. If only she could _see_. She closed her eyes.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos... Azarath Metrion Zinthos..." she recited, over and over. Even she had no clue how long she had been down there. Her senses had recovered somewhat - she could just about detect the concern of her friends, somewhere above her. But that was as much as she could do. She waited for what felt like hours.

*_SKRT SKRT*_

Raven's breath halted, her eyes wide open and useless in the dark. There was _something down here_! She heard the sound again and her breathing resumed, quick and frantic. She tried to calm herself but the words of her mantra were lost in the haze of her fear and exhaustion. She felt something move in her hair and bit her lip... Her eyes burned and she squinted as she saw a faint, green blur of light hovering in front of her unaccustomed eyes. Once she could focus, she saw that it appeared to be a... a firefly? The insect's light began to flash intermittently, a fairly normal thing for fireflies to do. Realisation dawned on Raven, however, that the pattern seemed familiar. It was repeating the same sequence. One long flash followed by three short flashes... Morse code? In Morse code, a dash and three dots was a letter...

"B?" she croaked. "Beast Boy?" she asked hopefully. The pattern changed: a dash, a dot and two dashes. Morse code for 'Y'. "Yes," she gasped. "Beast Boy..." The light blinked out and she felt him scurry down past her face, down her chest (she was too tired for any kind of embarrassment) and toward her hip. She felt a small, furry presence at her thigh and small, dextrous limbs fiddling at her belt - her communicator! Whatever small animal Beast Boy had chosen, he had managed to hit the emergency beacon on the device and was now making his way back to her head. She felt him settle around her neck and closed her eyes, bracing for the inevitable. Dust and dirt fell into her face as the ground shook, likely from Starfire and Cyborg literally tearing the ground asunder to reach her. Sunlight burst throught the darkness and she was lifted from her prison, a green mouse leaping from her shoulder. She regarded the others with a relieved smile and then, mercifully, drifted into weary unconsciousness...

The next time Raven opened her eyes, it was to see the harsh glare of the fluorescent lighting in the Tower infirmary. She squinted at them in annoyance as she adjusted. Once that had happened she scanned her surroundings: she was alone... but only for a moment. As she pushed herself up into a seated position, the door opened and a green teenager sauntered in, singing apparently random notes.

"Doo doo dooooo, na na n- _RAVEN!_ You're awake!" he fumbled with his communicator, his frantic eyes never leaving the sorceress. "Guys! She's awake, Raven is awake," he yelled, immediately dashing to Raven's side, putting his hand to her forehead. "Are you okay? Do you know where you are? How many fingers am I holding up? What's your name? What's _my_ name?" he asked in verbal rapid fire. After her ordeal, Beast Boy's antics were bizarrely soothing. She rolled her eyes and spoke.

"I'm sore but okay, I'm in the Tower infirmary, three, Raven and Beast Boy: the Great Green Idiot," she answered. There was a heartbeat of stillness as her answers reached him before he showed any reaction. To her surprise, his smile was small and quivering. His arms moved as if to embrace her but he froze, unwilling to add to any of her discomfort by squeezing her injured frame. Instead, he took her hand in his and merely held it to reassure himself that she was real and alive. Whatever Raven had been about to say died on her lips when she saw he was struggling - valiantly! - to hold back tears.

"I missed you, Rae..." he croaked. Raven grew anxious.

"How long have I been here?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"Four days," he answered. She breathed in relief. "It felt longer. A _lot_ longer." Raven watched him as he stared at her. She didn't know what to say.

"I'm... I'm okay, Beast Boy. I'm okay." He nodded at her words, squeezing his eyes shut. He released her hand just as the others barreled in. Cyborg immediately pressed her with questions and began taking readings. Robin stood nearby, no doubt berating himself for allowing Raven to be hurt. Starfire bounced around the ceiling like an errant balloon, her joy at Raven's recovery holding her from the ground. Beast Boy took a step back and watched the group with a smile. The circumstances were far from ideal but, to his mind, it did Raven good to occasionally see how much they needed her. Cared for her. The sight of them crowded around her bed filled him with a lightness he couldn't quite describe, a lightness Raven's empathic senses picked up on. She turned to see him smiling, looking at her now. She couldn't find any reason not to smile back.

Some hours later, after some healing meditation and heated words with Doctor Cyborg, Raven was able to leave the infirmary, clad in comfortable clothes instead of a hospital gown. She elected to head for the common room, feeling in the mood for some comfort after the harsh, clinical infirmary. As she approached the doors, she heard Robin's voice from within, unmistakably in leader mode.

"- still not happy you stayed. Against your orders!" he barked.

"..." Whoever was on the receiving end remained quiet.

"You were ordered to come back after setting of the beacon. You could have been crushed!" Raven's eyes widened. He could only be talking to Beast Boy.

"..." Beast Boy remained silent.

"I just don-" Robin began.

"I couldn't leave her there," Beast Boy muttered. Robin was quiet, his voice much calmer when he spoke.

"I get that... but you endangered yours-"

"You would have done the same for Starfire... and _don't_ try to deny it!" Beast Boy said. Raven smirked: through her bond and empathy, she knew Robin had indeed been about to deny the accusation. Instead, he sighed.

"You're right... just don't make a habit of it, okay? You're both important to the team. And to me. Understood?" Raven sensed Beast Boy's grin, even through the closed door.

"Gotcha, Rob." Robin's footsteps approached the door and, as they opened, Raven's presence gave him pause. He smiled after a moment.

"Good to see you up, Raven. Try not to push yourself to hard," he said. Raven raised an eyebrow as he passed her.

"That's rich, coming from you." He laughed at her but kept walking.

"Perks of leadership, Raven: do as I say, not as I do!" Raven shook her head and entered the common room. Beast Boy was sat on the couch, staring through the window at the night sky. At the sound of her rattling around the kitchen, seeking her teacup, he leapt to his feet and approached her.

"Hiya, Rae! Got away from Doctor Cyborg, huh?" he asked. Raven did a quick double-take at his speaking her own observation before answering.

"Not exactly, I just persuaded him it was in his own best interest to let me put distance between us," she said. Beast Boy laughed loudly

"Nice! I'll never know how you can threaten us so often and still have us so worried about you!" he joked. Raven smirked as she stirred her tea.

"It's a gift," she responded. "Do I really threaten you all that often?"

"Not _that_ often... it was just a joke, Rae. The threats part, not the worried part," he said. Raven, holding her cup, turned to face him.

"Sounded like you were worrying people too. Or Robin, at least," she ventured. His smile diminished.

"You heard all that, huh?" he mumbled. Raven nodded.

"Indeed. And you were right, he was going to try and deny it," she said. Beast Boy chuckled. "The Starfire line was a bit low, though," she said with a smirk. "After all, they're all gooey and lovey-dovey and we're, well... not."

"..."

"Beast Boy?" she tried. He had turned away from her, his body rigid. He swore under his breath.

"This isn't how I wanted this to happen," he said, slowly and quietly.

"What?" she asked. He looked at her. His smile was gone. He took a deep breath. Then another.

"I'm in love with you."

"What? No you're not," Raven answered in a comically confused voice. Beast Boy actually laughed.

"I am," he said, firmly. Raven, with shaking hands, placed her cup on the counter before she dropped it.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" she insisted. Beast Boy laughed. _Again_.

"Since when does romance make sense? Listen, I'n not asking for anything from you, okay? If you can tell me, right now, that you have never felt any attraction towards me, that'll be the end of it. It'll be my problem. My burden," he said. Raven stepped back, leaning against the far counter as she stared at him. Memories flickered in front of her eyes: her birthday party. His aggression when he was influenced by the Beast. The subsequent talk by the sea. The hug after Malchior. All affectionate moments... but no attraction. Another memory surfaced from a few months ago when, during a visit from her kids, she had agreed to play hide and seek. She eventually found them all in one place, an unused closet in a spare room. To her surprise, as well as three giggling children, there was also a snickering changeling with them. Upon seeing Raven, Beast Boy called for a retreat and, in the form of a horse, carried all three of them out of the room and out of the tower, racing around the island itself. Raven chased them of course, later admitting to herself it was the most fun she had had in quite some time. Hours later, the pair of heroes walked back toward the tower, Raven holding the hand of a drowsy Melvin and, in her other arm, a sleeping Teether. On his back, Beast Boy carried Timmy, sound asleep.

"Well. That was something," Raven had said. Beast Boy had instinctively understood her meaning.

"Yeah, I had fun too," he enthused, beaming. It occurred to Raven for a moment that the pair of them, trudging back home with three weary children, might have appeared slightly... familial. She remembered thinking that she herself must have been exhausted past the point of reason, as the idea didn't seem abhorrent. It didn't actually seem too bad at all. In fact, when she really thought about it, if she were to share her future with someone in such a way, Beast Boy seemed a decent choice. She remembered she had blushed...

In the common room, Raven looked up at a patient but understandably fidgety Beast Boy.

"I can't," she said, simply. His face fell, his ears drooped and his shoulders slumped.

"I... I understand," he said, starting to move away. Raven cried out.

"N-NO! I can't... I can't say I've never thought about you. Like that," she elucidated. As she pondered, more and more instances she had forgotten popped up, flashes of admiration, emotion and, in one or two cases, even _lust_. She had suppressed the sensations ruthlessly, as she did all such unpredictable feelings... but she couldn't deny they had happened, not in the face of his candour. His smile was small but his eyes were bright and hopeful.

"Wow..." he breathed. She smiled back at him, uncertainly.

"I... Give me some time to sort things out. I can't promise anything but... I think I would like to try," Raven said. Beast Boy nodded energetically.

"Oh! Yes, of course! Sure! Definitely!" he said. With a rare blush, Raven excused herself and retreated to her room, taking her tea with her. She meditated, sat and thought, consulted her emotions and eventually fell asleep. When she awoke, she saw she had slept through til the morning - sunlight was peeking around the edges of her curtains. Raven had decided. She stood up and walked to her window.

"Out of necessity and, perhaps, a little fear, I have always lived my life in the shadows," she whispered to herself. She approached her curtain and twitched aside the heavy fabric, a shaft of light spilling across her room, highlighting the violets and purples of her room. It didn't look bad. She smiled.

"Maybe it's time I let in a little light."

She went to find Beast Boy.

**THE END.**

**There we are, perhaps not my best but another prompt under my belt. As pointless, meandering and fluffy as ever... just like you wanted! lol**

**-Jack**


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